The TARDIS Landed in My Backyard
by Elle Knight
Summary: ...And all I got was this lousy cold. Corina is home alone battling the flu, and just fighting to get some sleep. She never planned on a time traveling alien mucking up her back garden. Takes place between The Runaway Bride and Smith and Jones.


This is just a little plot bunny that's been nagging at me for a while. I hope you enjoy it. Sequel to follow soon! 

This is dedicated to qtheallpowerful for all of her help!

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**The TARDIS Landed in My Back Garden, and All I Got Was This Lousy Cold**

"ACHOOOOO!" The sneeze was deafening and it made my ears ring like mad. "Ugh." I untangled myself from the damp bed sheets. I'd definitely have to wash them after I managed to get out of bed today. Whenever that would be.

It was already one in the afternoon, and I'd done nothing productive whatsoever. It's not like I could exactly get out of bed for more than a few seconds before I got dizzy and had to lay back down. Boy, do I hate flu season. It didn't help that it was also Spring Break in which my roommate decided that she would take her boyfriend to California for a weeklong fling. That left me to do the housework by myself, and no one to run out for medicine for me when I really couldn't bring myself to roll out of bed…like today. Sometimes, the universe is just not fair.

I decided to give up on my attempts to make my day worthwhile, and rolled over in bed to take another snooze. It wasn't five seconds after I closed my eyes that a whirring sound drifted through the window next to my head. It successfully roused me from sleep as well as increased my annoyance with our neighbors ten-fold.

"Uhhh, please not now."

Before I could snuggle down and try again, there was a loud thump and a force shook the apartment. I sat up then, braving the dizziness to try and figure out what exactly was going on outside. I took a peek out the window, seeing a flash of blue among the leafy trees in the back garden. I was so intently focused on what exactly could be parked out there that I almost didn't hear the slam of the back door. It made me stop, cold. A nervous chill crept over my body. Someone was in the house.

Ignoring the sudden spinning of the room, I tugged a robe on, digging in the hall closet for something, anything that could be used as a weapon. The only thing I could find that might work was a clothes iron that hadn't seen the light of day in God knows how long. I stopped to listen for any sort of noise. Hearing some shuffling in the kitchen, I crept slowly down the hallway. There wasn't even a moment where I contemplated calling for help, and I probably should have. Fear does stupid things to a person in grave situations.

The kitchen was quiet when I finally got to the doorway. I risked a quick glance into the archway, and no one was there. Maybe I could get out before whoever it was came back. Drawing the conclusion that I couldn't go out the kitchen door just in case the person had gone back to the garden, I headed toward the front door and managed to successfully run into someone on my way.

"Ooof!" I landed in the hallway on my back. A tall, bespeckled stranger stood over me. I just screamed, trying to get up and get away, except the dizziness was definitely catching up to me now. I couldn't seem to get off the floor no matter how hard I tried. Seeing this, the man tried to help me up. Shrugging away from him, I never stopped screaming.

"If you don't stop that soon, you're going to scream yourself hoarse, you know!" He sounded a bit annoyed, and his face showed a bit of concern among other things. He was wearing a nice jacket, pants, and a tie. He didn't seem at all the type to be breaking into people's houses on a Wednesday afternoon.

I noticed it was quiet then. Funny I hadn't even noticed that I'd stopped screaming myself.

"I swear I will start screaming again if you even _try_ to hurt me!" I managed to growl. His eyebrows shot up.

"Well good thing I don't want to hurt you then. Has anyone ever told you that you have a scream that could make someone's ear drums burst?" He rubbed at his ears. "Lucky mine are still intact. Couldn't have that happening now could we?" He regarded me with a small smile, and I just stared up at him, completely bewildered.

"Who _are _you?"

"I'm the Doctor." I let him help me up that time, leaning against him more heavily than I intended. "And I think you're a bit ill."

"No, I'm Corina." I decided I would ignore his little statement. I wasn't one to ask for help from random strangers. Shrugging him off, I faced him. He was giving the apartment a once over.

"Cozy little place you've got here. I wouldn't have dropped in if it wasn't an emergency, but I seem to be in dire need of a bathtub plug. Would you happen to have one?"

"A bath tub plug?"

"Yep. Need it to repair my machine out back. Sorry about that, by the way, it would have been a bit of a messy landing if that garden hadn't been there. Sure you understand."

"Landing. How did you happen to _land_ in my garden?" I raised my voice, and the headache I'd acquired somewhere in this little fiasco flared up.

"Well, with my TARDIS of course." He breezed past me, heading down the hallway.

"A TARDIS? What the hell is a TARDIS?" I was screaming again, but he seemed to take no notice. He just kept winding his way down the hall, peaking behind my bedroom door, and then moving on to the bathroom next to it.

"Ah, here we go."

"Did you even hear me?"

"Yes, quite loudly and clearly." He turned to meet my eyes, "And it can't be doing any favors for that headache you must have. You really are a mess aren't you?"

I didn't know whether to be amused or insulted then.

"Okay, fine, if I help you find your bathtub plug, will you please just leave me alone so I can get some sleep?"

"I'll do better."

"Yeah, and how's that?"

"I'll make your cold better and then you can sleep for a week."

At this point I didn't even care what nonsense he was spouting. He'd agreed to get out of my house, and that's all that mattered.

"Here," I brushed by him in the doorway so I could get to the medicine cabinet, "I think I might have one stashed away in here. If not, we could try Jenna's bathroom."

"Who's Jenna?"

"My roommate." I continued to dig through toothpaste, Band-Aids, aspirin. "No luck," I piped up a few minutes later. "Jenna's bathroom it is."

The Doctor followed me, silently, all the while fiddling with some device that looked like a very thick, very metallic penlight.

"What are you doing?" He stopped to look up at me.

"Just adjusting my sonic screwdriver a bit. Nothing for you to worry about."

"Sonic screwdriver?" I asked, disbelievingly. "Let me see."

"No, sorry." He held it out of my reach. "Can't let you."

"Fine! You're gone the moment I find that plug, got it?"

"Whatever you say, oh mistress of this humble abode." I wanted so badly to smile then, but I had to stop myself. I couldn't show him any sort of reaction. I knew it would only encourage him.

"Here," I stopped in front of Jenna's room. "I'll go look for the plug, you stay out here. Jenna never lets anyone touch her stuff. When she gets back, she's definitely going to yell at me for this. I'd like to know that I was actually the one who made the mess."

"Fair enough." He couldn't even bother to look up at me.

"Whatever," I muttered underneath my breath before disappearing into Jenna's bedroom.

Moments later I emerged from the room, waving the plug triumphantly in my hand. He was leaning against the wall, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Here you go. Now, I trust you'll keep your promise?'

"Did you know your temperature's 102?"

I stopped short, noticing the "sonic screwdriver", as he called it, being rolled between his fingers.

"What in the hell did you do to me?" I thrust the plug at him angrily. "Please, just go, and leave me alone! I should have never let you in the house in the first place!"

He grabbed my wrist, gently.

"Corina, you're sick, and I know you want to feel better. Just come outside with me to get some fresh air, and I'll go away. I promise."

"Fine, but I'm only going just to be sure you leave, for good!"

I followed him to the back garden where I discover the blue blur out the window had been a blue Police Box.

"This is yours?"

"Yep, this is the TARDIS."

"TARDIS?"

"Time and Relative Dimension in Space."

"Right."

"Do you want to come inside?"

"Inside? I doubt you could even fit in…" Before I could finish, though, he'd drug me inside. Immediately, I was overcome with breathlessness. Inside it was huge and bright with some sort of console in the middle of it all.

"Corina, you all right?" The Doctor's voice floated toward me through the growing haze in my head.

Before I knew it, I felt myself falling toward the floor, and a pair of arms cushioning my fall. The dizziness was overwhelming now, and I was thankful he was there.

"Doctor," I squeaked out, shutting my eyes to the spinning room.

"It's okay, Corina. I'm going to help. Here we go."

He picked me up in his arms, carrying me for a few minutes. I was placed on something soft and cushiony. It was warm in the room, too warm with the Doctor's body pressed up against mine. He moved away from me, and I tried breathing through my dizziness.

"Not too fast." He admonished, touching his fingers to my temples. They were cold and soothing. "You'll hyperventilate." He rubbed at my temples, gently, and the dizziness was gone. I risked peeking open my eyes.

The lighting in the cream-colored room was dim, but I could still make out various cabinets mounted to the wall around me. There was an overstuffed, red armchair in the corner, and the walls around me seemed to almost glitter. I squinted, then blinked, trying to clear my vision of whatever was making me imagine this. The Doctor must have noticed because he gave a little chuckle, saying,

"No, you're not seeing things."

"Why is it all glittery?" That's the ingenious question I ask in such a situation? Sometimes, I surprise myself with how idiotic I can be.

This definitely made him chuckle harder,

"I suppose she likes it that way. It came with the TARDIS."

"Right," I said, breathlessly, "bigger on the inside than it is outside. You've _got _to be some sort of alien."

He gave me a mischievous smile,

"And what if I am?"

"I'd say I'm so feverish that I'm hallucinating, and I wouldn't believe anything I'm seeing or hearing at the moment."

"Why don't we do something about that?" He smoothed a hand over my forehead, and I instantly felt a wave of cool comfort wash over my body.

"What did you do?" My voice had come out shakier than I wanted it to.

"It's just a cooling patch. It doesn't hurt," he smoothed two fingers over one of its corners, "does it?"

"N-no."

A smile came over his face then,

"Good. Sometimes, these are built for certain DNA structures. Should be safe for humans, generally, but sometimes there are a few that are the exception." I didn't even ask that time.

"Now," he began, turning toward what seemed to be a counter behind him. "not allergic to anything, are you? I could run a simple scan with the sonic screwdriver, but you don't seem to like that very much, so I thought I'd ask." I was honestly surprised that he _bothered_ to ask.

"No, not that I'm aware of."

"Penicillin, shellfish, yeast, anything?" He listed them off so fast, I could barely understand him.

"No, I'm sure."

"Because now would be the best time to tell…"

"Just go ahead."

"All right. If you insist." He started fiddling with something on the counter, making a slight metallic clanking. "Not a fan of jabs, I take it."

"Not really." Chills were starting to envelop me now. I think that it was definitely time to take this…thing off. I started to unpeel it from my forehead, but the Doctor, as if he could sense what I was doing, stopped me, smoothing it back on.

"Leave it." His tone was only slightly stern.

"But it's…"

"It's okay. Let it do its job. Now," He turned his whole body around, facing me with a small metallic tube no bigger than someone's finger, "I'm going to give you this, and you're going to feel 100 better. I'll let you sleep and then we'll see where we are." Giving me a slight smile, I realized he was waiting for me to respond to him.

"O-kay. What are you giving me?"

"Simple cold vaccine. Nothing to worry about." He brushed the sleeve of my robe aside without another world, and I moved my arm out of his reach.

"Cold vaccine? That's not possible."

"Not possible _here._ Other planets, other galaxies, it's a fact of life."

"And this isn't going to make me grow extra body parts or turn a different color, is it?"

"You're not Raxicoriofallapatorian, are you? Because then, that might be some sort of an issue."

"No," I'm sure I was looking _very _confused now. "I wasn't the last time I checked."

"Good." His beaming smile had me distracted long enough to get my sleeve rolled up.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!"

"What? I haven't even done anything yet!"

"Well, maybe you could warn me before you did whatever it is you're going to do!"

"Oh I understand," he chuckled, sarcastically, "you're completely open to it until it starts to get scary! You're not adventurous at all are you?"

I scoffed, clearly offended,

"Yeah, I've accepted medical help from some stranger who claims to be an alien! And you say I'm not adventurous…" There was an overwhelming amount of pressure in my arm, then. It was a bit cold, but it wasn't a sharp pain. Unconsciously, I let out a small sigh. Immediately, I could feel my body adjusting in temperature. There was no longer that uncomfortable heat in my cheeks that had been with me for the past two days.

Gently, the Doctor removed the patch from my forehead, rubbing the spot of skin that had been covered.

"It's working I take it."

Working was most definitely an understatement. Whatever had been in that syringe was making me feel lightheaded…in a very good way. I was sleepy to the point where I could barely keep my eyes open. He'd drugged me! He drugged me, and I didn't even make any real attempt at stopping him!

My anger didn't translate to my words, however. They came out as slight gurgles, and he just shushed me,

"It's going to take a while for it to wear off. Just relax and let your body do the bit of healing it needs to."

He drew a warm blanket over me, tucking me into its soft cocoon.

"Rest," was what he instructed me to do. I let my eyes slip closed. At this point, how could I say no?

Birdsong was the wake-up call from my unceremonious nap. I was back in my own bed, and, somehow, the sheets smelled of lavender; crisp and clean. I glanced at the clock on my bedside table. 4:48. Okay, so I'd slept for over three hours…and where _was_ the Doctor?

My head was clear of its stuffiness, and I was able to get out of bed without any sort of dizziness. I needed to give the man a hug wherever he was.

But all I found was an empty apartment, some hot water brewing in the coffee pot, and some lavender tea bags set out next to the kitchen sink. Under the box of tea bags was a note, which without, I would have thought the whole thing some crazy fever dream:

_Corina,_

_Sorry I couldn't say goodbye, but I had to move onward and upward, through time, specifically. (Oh, and did I mention the TARDIS also travels through time? Brilliant, isn't it?) I want to thank you for the use of your bathtub plug without I would not have been able to repair my beautiful ship. Your kindness to a stranger was quite exceptional. _

_I took the liberty of tidying up your bed for you (I hope you enjoyed the special detergent), and brewing a bit of tea. Be sure to have some first thing after waking. It's the best in the universe. Honestly._

_I would have liked to ask you along on my travels, but then I realized that it might not have been the best time to take on someone else. I did enjoy your company, though, and I hope we run across each other sometime in the future._

_May adventure always be your companion, and when Jenna comes home to find one of her bathtub plugs missing, tell her I've done it. Maybe between us, we can sort her out._

_Love from your friend, _

_The Doctor_

I nearly hugged it to my chest. I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry a bit. I had just wanted to say thanks, that was all. I suppose he already knew that, but I would have preferred to say it to his face. A flash of white-hot irritation coursed through me. Stupid alien boy. Sometimes…

The sound of a key in the front door made me look up from the note. A moment later, Jenna's voice floated through the hallway,

"Corina, you home?"

"In here," I called back, getting a mug down from the cabinet. Might as well drink the tea if he bothered to leave it.

"It's so nice outside." Jenna was in the kitchen, now, dropping her purse on the table and browsing through the fridge, "I would have thought you would have been outside in the garden."

"Wasn't really up to it today. Why are you home early?"

"Cam had to get back for a business meeting, and I thought I'd give you a hand with some of the housework. I realized I up and left you alone all week, and I sorta felt bad."

"It's fine, I actually had an interesting day today." I took my tea to the table, sipping it lightly.

"Oh yeah, how so?"

"I don't think you'd believe me even if I told you." She just rolled her eyes.

"Well, whatever it is certainly seemed to put you in a good mood. I'm going to go have a shower. Make me a cup for when I get out?" She pointed toward my mug.

"Sure, go and enjoy."

"Great." She smiled, and left the room.

I stirred a bit of sugar into my tea, trying to envision the Doctor as I last saw him. It was so frustrating. He'd just up and left, not even waiting…

"Corina?" Jenna's yell broke through my thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"Did you steal one of my bathtub plugs?"

All I could do was giggle senselessly.


End file.
